Dubai International Cricket Stadium
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium, initially called the Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium, is among Dubai's major cricket venues. With a seating of 25,000, the stadium may be considered Pakistan's adoptive home field. Unlike other stadiums, the Dubai International Stadium features a circular roof.
During April 2009, this stadium hosted its inaugural One-Day International (ODI) match featuring Pakistan versus Australia. Several more tournaments have taken place here, notably the famous collapse to spin of England, which ended in a 10-wicket loss to Pakistan. It is a very well built stadium with a distinctive feature: the "Ring of Fire" floodlights.
Dating September 19, the second match of the IPL 2021 began at the Dubai International Stadium in between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians. The Dubai International Cricket Stadium is about to host a total of 13 matches throughout the second leg of IPL 2021, inclusive of the First Qualifier and the Final.
Though the entire T20 record shows that those batting late inning have a better success percentage there at the Dubai International Stadium, equations have now been entirely reversed in recent years. Teams chasing have struggled, as now the first batting teams have won majority of the time. According to the pitch report of Dubai International Stadium, the very same thing would happen in IPL 2021's second leg.
The Dubai International Stadium's pitch is favourable to batters. Teams are typically able to achieve good totals in the stadium, as witnessed in the past IPL season. The IPL 2020 average first innings score in Dubai reached 171, which in itself is a major high.
Throughout the second innings in Dubai, the spinners benefit from the wicket. This is why, in the previous five IPL league matches here, the median second innings total has been 144. In Dubai, it is common to see teams struggling to chase and therefore it is best to have wickets left till the end five overs.
Cracks appear on the stadium pitches due to Dubai's dry and hot weather, which suits spin bowling. During the initial few overs, fast bowlers receive some help after which the pitch's dry and sandy character is revealed, making it simpler for the batsmen to perform their strokes. Here, spinners are more economical, but pacers generally take the majority of the wickets. Throughout the IPL 2020 in Dubai, pacers grabbed an average of 7.2 wpm (wickets per match), whereas spinners took half of that.